Learn how to tame dinosaurs, dodos, and other creatures in PixARK.

After much anticipation, PixARK finally released on Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview earlier this week. As a voxel-based spinoff of ARK: Survival Evolved, players will need to hunt animals, gather materials, harvest crops, and tame creatures in order to survive PixARK’s blocky, dinosaur-filled world. In this guide, we’ll explain how to tame creatures and dinosaurs in PixARK so that you can ride animals and have a trained companion during your adventure.

Taming creatures serves multiple purposes in PixARK. One of the first activities you’ll want to do in PixARK is get yourself a mount. To do so, you will need to hunt and tame a creature first. While tamed creatures are primarily used as mounts for riding, they can also help defend your property and can assist you while hunting. Tamed animals can also be used for item storage and transportation when your inventory gets full.

How to Tame Creatures in PixARK

Taming creatures serves multiple purposes in PixARK. One of the first activities you’ll want to do in PixARK is get yourself a mount. To do so, you will need to hunt and tame a creature first. While tamed creatures are primarily used as mounts for riding, they can also help defend your property and can assist you while hunting. Tamed animals can also be used for item storage and transportation when your inventory gets full.

Players can tame most of the creatures and animals in PixARK, including dinosaurs and birds. Some creatures will be trickier to tame than others, depending on their size and speed.

There are two types of taming techniques in PixARK: Passive Taming and Knockout Taming. One method is used for non-aggressive creatures such as dodos, while the other is used for aggressive creatures, like larger dinosaurs.

Before you can begin taming creatures in PixARK, you’ll need to gather food and materials first. Make sure to stock up on plenty of food, sleepy arrows, tranquilizers, and Narcoberries in advance to prepare yourself for the taming process.

Passive Taming

Passive Taming is used for taming non-aggressive creatures, ones that do not attack you unless provoked. You can check to see if an animal is passive by using your scanner.

This taming method is very straightforward. To tame a creature in PixARK using Passive Taming, all you have to do is approach a non-aggressive creature that you want to tame and feed the creature its favorite food. Make sure to keep the food you’re using for taming in the last slot in your inventory.

When you start feeding a creature, a Taming bar will appear on the screen, showing you your taming progress for that specific creature. You can only feed a creature when it’s hungry, so you may have to repeat the feeding procedure several times before the taming process is complete.

Once you have successfully tamed an animal, you can then go ahead and give it a name to seal the deal.

Knockout Taming

Since Knockout Taming is reserved for aggressive creatures, players must sedate the creature first before attempting to feed and tame them. Sleepy arrows, tranquilizers, and even wooden clubs can be used to sedate a hostile creature by temporarily knocking them unconscious. When a creature is knocked out, you’ll see a halo of stars swirling over their head, cartoon-style.

Once you have successfully knocked out a creature, you can proceed with the same feeding method used for Passive Taming. Add the creature’s favorite food type to their inventory while they are sedated to begin the taming process.

Keep an eye on their Unconscious bar to ensure they don’t wake up in the middle of being tamed. Use Narcoberries to keep larger beasts unconscious for a longer period of time.

Once you have tamed a creature in PixARK, you can craft a saddle to ride it around the island and use it as a much faster form of transportation. For a visual explanation of how to tame creatures in PixARK, check out the video above made by the PixARK development team, Snail Games USA.